The Argosy — page 62: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Lights and Shadows of Sketching. AQ motes ; officials, civil and military, surrounding the coffin, and holding the tassels of the rich velvet pall; the mayor of the town in his tri- colour scarf; the colonel of the garrison in full uniform, his broad chest glittering with medals and stars; the long line of mourners—all filed before me, with slow and solemn steps, as I stood there with head bent and bare in respect for the dead. It all seemed like a dream, and moved me strangely. I felt that quiver of the nostril, that blanching of the skin, which come in moments of deep emotion. And I never stirred a muscle until the last mourner had passed, and the music had again fainted away in the distance. I was preparing to resume my work, when a hideous figure came slouching up the causeway. ‘The creature had “felon” written all over him. It was written in his shapeless, gaping shoes, in his baggy blue calico trousers, in his filthy blouse, hanging in shreds over his hairy wrists; most of all, in his low-typed face, with sloppy mouth, big jaws, and small hungry eyes. He stopped in front of me, and, in vile French and husky voice, said: ‘* What d’ye think of that?” Unwilling to discuss the matter with him, I stupidly asked: ‘“* Who was it?” ) His little, ugly eyes glittered, he craned his dirty neck towards me, and in an angry voice replied : ‘Who was it? One of those money-grubbers, it was! One of those blood-suckers, it was! You don’t suppose it was one of Us, do you? When blackguards” (‘‘canaille” was his word) ‘“‘like you and me burst up, they chuck us into a hole. They don’t make such a fuss about it as all that!” | And with a malignant scowl he lounged away in the wake of the procession. Was it this sudden claim of kinship with the vile creature; this assumption on his part of perfect equality ; was it only because I had never been called ‘‘canaille” before, and it takes some time to get accustomed to it? Whatever the cause, a shadow seemed to fall around me; the scene lost all its charm; the sky lost all its blue. That day I sketched no more. VOL. XLVI, es! SS (CO) im COMICLOOO